Is the Pirelli Cyber Tire the Future of Transportation?Pirelli (Pirelli)The Pirelli Cyber Tire gathers data and sends it to your car and to the cloud.It could even send data to cars bnehind you to warn about potholes, rain, snow, and ice so you can adjust your driving accordingly.No date for production, but they will be made in the U.S., Pirelli said.Pirelli just announced a major step forward in its strategy to transform tires into AI-enabled road-monitoring agents, the company said at the recent SelectUSA Investment Summit, where it presented what it has named its Cyber Tire technology. Toward that end, the Italian tiremaker acquired a 30 percent stake in Swedish AI company Univrses, strengthening the integration of advanced computer vision technologies into Pirelli’s Cyber Tire system.Wait, what is this?AdvertisementAdvertisement“Cyber Tire is the world’s first hardware-and-software system capable of collecting data and information from sensors embedded in tires,” the company said, “processing them through Pirelli’s proprietary software and algorithms, and, by communicating in real time with the vehicle’s electronics, enabling new functionalities integrated with driving and control systems to enhance the driving experience and increase safety levels, as well as supporting connected infrastructure.”What, exactly, can this do? A lot of things.“The accelerometer detects forces but also road condition, roughness, irregularities, holes, whatever,” said Piero Misani, chief technical officer and head of Cyber Tire business at Pirelli.In addition to, say potholes, it can detect water, ice, or snow on the road and, in the future, anyway, send that data to cars behind it so they know to slow down.Pirelli (Pirelli)“Cars will be more and more connected,” Misani said. “Of course, this information may be used not only inside the single car for steering and braking control, but also to inform others of critical situations. The point is that the cars are being able to speak to one another. The infrastructure is there. With autonomous vehicles it’s already exactly like this. With V2X, vehicle to everything, the possibilities are limitless.”AdvertisementAdvertisementThey’ve been working on this for quite a while.“We started in 2000, so for more than 25 years we have been working on collecting data from tires,” Misani said.It isn’t easy.“The sensor in the tire is not so simple. The acceleration sensor is inside the tire and therefore has to be able to withstand up to 1000 gs, it rotates 270 kmh (168 mph). The acceleration on a Pagani or a McLaren is enormous. So the sensor has to be light, less than 14 grams total including the battery.”The battery is the most difficult component, because not only does it have to function in that high-g environment, it also has to last entire life of the tire. But Pirelli has met all those requirements, it says.Pirelli (Pirelli)When is the technology going to be in customer tires? Pirelli announced it’ll make the tires in it’s Rome, Georgia, plant, but didn’st give a specific date for start of production.AdvertisementAdvertisement“The start of Cyber Tire production in our Rome, Georgia, plant is a significant milestone for Pirelli in this country,” said Claudio Zanardo, CEO of Pirelli North America. “It reflects our commitment to bringing advanced technologies like Cyber Tire closer to the market, further strengthening our industrial footprint and innovation capabilities in the United States.”
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